Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Arab Army returns to Gush Etzion

Makor Rishon reports that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved the opening of 2 "Palestinian National Security Forces" Police Stations in Gush Etzion, one in Sa'ir and one in the Arab village of Tekoa .

Each station will have 10 "policemen" -- 5 armed with semi-automatic handguns, and 5 armed with fully automatic AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

The IDF spokesman responded:

"The opening of the Palestinian Police Station in Sair and in Arab Tekoa are approved within the framework of opening 20 Palestinian Police Stations in the Central Region. Their activies will be under the supervision of the IDF. The Tekoa station is not located on the Gush Etzion/Dead Sea road because the station is inside the village -- the policemen inside are only permitted to uphold public order within the village. The weapons are only for self defense from Palestinian law-breakers and for the policemen to carry out their duties"

At this point, I would like to remind the Jewish residents of Gush Etzion, that many of the recent terror activities in the West Bank were carried out by these Palestinian Authority "policemen" (and officers) who were under the supervision of the IDF, and who were only supposed to use their weapons in "self-defense."

Some that come to mind:

The murder of Ido Zolden -- a resident of the settlement of Shavei Shomron, who was driving on road 55 toward the settlement of Kedumim in the northern West Bank on November 19, 2007 when terrorists in a passing vehicle opened fire, critically wounding him. Haaretz reminds us that "according to information released for publication Sunday night, the attack was carried out by three Palestinians, members of Palestinian National Security force.

Not far from Gush Etzion, Ahikam Amihai and David Rubin were killed in a terror attack on Friday, December 28, 2007 when they were hiking near Hebron. Again, Haaretz informs us that The terrorists who carried out Friday's shooting attack near the West Bank city of Hebron, killing two Israelis, were both employed by the Palestinian Authority, according to information made public yesterday. They were all members of the Palestinian national security forces.

You can see in the picture above what the "policemen" look like -- they carry AK47's and are all members of the Palestinian Authority "national security forces".